An example of how amazingly different winter can be in Alaska. I doubt many of my hiking and backpacking friends who visit in the summer can imagine I’d be very interested in taking a picture of a scrappy little willow bush. Come hiking time, these guys are our nemesis. Thickets of impenetrable willow can really make a walk in the park so not much a walk in the park.

But like all of us, they have their moments. And this young willow’s moment is now. 2 days later it was just another scraggly naked little sapling poking through the dirty snow.but this afternoon, it shone like gold.

A black and white photo of hoar frost and fresh snow cover a young willow sapling in winter, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.